Maui-grown pineapple lives on! New company to continue growing Maui Gold brand.- Hawaii Magazine

Maui-grown pineapple lives on! New company to continue growing Maui Gold brand.- Hawaii Magazine

by: Derek Paiva
posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 at 12:15 AM

Maui_pineapple_production_to_continueFresh, whole Maui-grown pineapple will not be a relic of Hawaii’s past after all.

A consortium of Maui-based investors on Thursday announced the formation of Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Ltd., a new company that would immediately continue farming and harvesting the sweet and juicy fruit on 1,000 acres of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. land.

Haliimaile is slated to begin operations today.

On Nov. 3, Maui Land & Pineapple announced that it would shut down all operations at its Maui Pineapple Co. subsidiary at the end of 2009 after 97 years of growing the signature Hawaii fruit on the island. The largest grower of pineapple left in Hawaii, Maui Pineapple Co. sold fresh whole pineapple in stores and online under its Maui Gold brand. Maui Pineapple’s last harvest was completed on Dec. 23.

Haliimaile Pineapple Co. will grow pineapple on only a third of the 3,000 acres farmed by Maui Pineapple Co., with significantly less workers. But the launch of the new company is good news for Hawaii residents used to seeing fresh-picked locally-grown pineapple at Island supermarkets and visitors fond of taking the fruit home with them at the end of Hawaii vacations.

Maui_pineapple_production_to_continueHaliimaile Pineapple’s newly acquired assets from Maui Pineapple Co. include a license to sell its whole pineapple under the latter company’s famous Maui Gold brand. Haliimaile’s immediate plans call for marketing and selling the fruit to Hawaii hotels and restaurants and local retailers for consumer purchase. It will also continue to sell direct-to-consumers online.

The new company’s investors and principals include a number of former executives and operations directors from Maui Pineapple Co. and Maui Land & Pineapple. The majority owner is Pardee Erdman, owner of upcountry Maui’s Ulupalakua Ranch and Tedeschi Vineyards. Tedeschi's selection of wines includes several made from Maui-grown pineapple juice.

Introduced to the Islands in 1813, pineapple grew into one of Hawaii’s largest exported crops in the early 1900s after significant Oahu land investments by Del Monte and Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (today known as Dole Food Co.). Hawaiian Pineapple Co. president James Dole purchased the entire island of Lanai for pineapple production in 1922, eventually growing acreage there into the world’s largest pineapple plantation.

Hawaii pineapple production declined in the 1980s as Dole and Del Monte relocated much of their acreage elsewhere in the world, primarily due to high U.S. labor and land costs. Dole closed down the entirety of its Lanai pineapple operations in 1992, while Del Monte harvested its final Hawaii crop in 2008.

Hawaii remains the only state in the U.S. where pineapple is grown.

European winter chills fresh produce demand - Business Daily Africa

European winter chills fresh produce demand - Business Daily Africa


Extreme winter conditions in Europe — the worst in five years — are causing jitters within the Kenya’s horticulture industry because of a significant cut in outdoor activities that has stymied orders for exports for the high season that runs between February and May.
While December falls within the cyclic winter season in Europe, flowers, fruits and vegetable exporters say cold temperatures have hit the purchase of flowers and hindered transportation of fresh produce from the main airports to the hinterland, mostly served by trains and trucks.

Various reports appearing on the international press indicate that snowstorms and subfreezing temperatures have persisted across Europe in the last two weeks, leaving a trail of destruction to property and life and forcing potential buyers to stay indoors.

In some instances, authorities have issued airlines with orders to cut the number of flights per day, sending shock waves among Kenyan growers who rely heavily on aviation as the mode of transport to get fresh produce to Europe on time.

There have also been reports of transport authorities in some EU countries ordering trains to stop plying certain channels in Europe, raising fears of possible delay of Kenyan vegetables and fruits to get to the final consumers.

“This December has been a very difficult period. Most of us have been forced to halt flower deliveries to Europe until the weather improves because at the moment there is literally nobody to transport flowers to the other end,” Mrs Rose Wahome, a director at the Nairobi-based Mosi Branan Flowers told Business Daily.

While flower farmers may still have peak sales of Valentine Day and Mothers Day – the two occasions that account for 30 per cent of export sales — to reverse their falling fortunes, fruits and vegetable exporters count every single day — between September and March next year – that their produce does not get to the market as constituting significant loss.

The Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya (FPEAK) says the winter season is usually the industry’s peak season accounting for 65 per cent of all the fruits and vegetables exported to Europe

“This period is normally the most important time in the industry’s calendar when our exporters are able to establish long term sales contracts.

The cold weather in Europe ensures there are no domestic supplies of fruits and vegetables from Europe to compete with our produce,” said the FPEAK Chief Executive Officer, Dr Stephen Mbithi.

At some point just before the Christmas day, the weather shock almost spilled into the country, triggering a wave of panic through the industry as word went round that Kenya Airways would not fly a cargo plane carrying 1,000 tonnes of fresh produce to Europe after an airport black out blamed on poor weather.

The plane later took off after a speedy assurance by the airport authority that all was under control.

At farm level, bad weather in Europe comes at a particularly inopportune time just when the blooms were blossoming following the return of rains in mid November after a prolonged dry spell dating back to 2007. “We just started experiencing good exports of fruits and vegetables to Europe from mid last month as farms started receiving good (El Nino) rains and most economies of Europe also started showing signs of recovery,” said Dr Mbithi.

Figures released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday indicate that export of cut flowers, vegetables, and fruits – Kenya’s leading horticultural exports - decreased to 18,500, 17,000 and 5,000 tonnes in the third quarter of 2009 compared to 19,300, 19,600 and 5,200 tonnes respectively during the same quarter of 2008.

But flower farmers see extreme European weather as a double tragedy, coming at a time when most offices which usually buy blooms on a daily basis locally for decorative purposes are also closed for December holidays.

Generally, industry players expect this year’s performance to be better than last year when depressed demand in Europe caused the first drop in an industry that has steadily been growing at a robust annual rate of 20 per cent since late 1990s.

Planning test to safeguard competition could cost 25,000 supermarket jobs - The Telegraph UK

Planning test to safeguard competition could cost 25,000 supermarket jobs - The Telegraph

Twenty-five thousand new supermarket jobs will be blocked over the next decade if the Government's proposed Competition Test goes ahead, the industry has warned.


By James Hall and Richard Fletcher
Published: 8:00PM GMT 01 Jan 2010

The controversial planning test – which is designed to stop any supermarket from becoming too dominant in any area – would also have prevented 5,000 jobs from being created between 2006 and 2008 if it had been in place.

Some 2,800 of those 5,000 jobs would have been at supermarkets other than Tesco, whose significant market share the test is presumed to be aimed at hobbling, according to industry research.
Of the 2,200 jobs that would have been blocked at Tesco, around 700 would have been at two Government-endorsed regeneration partnership stores in Port Glasgow and Haydock on Merseyside. Regeneration partnerships are a key job-creation initiative which focus on the socially disadvantaged and long-term unemployed.

Retail workers have been hard hit by the downturn, and unions are likely to be highly critical of any initiatives that would prevent jobs from being created. The number of shop assistants claiming benefits has risen by 87,700 since the start of the downturn.

The Competition Test was a key proposal of the Competition Commission's 2008 investigation into the groceries market. The proposed test, which has yet to be implemented, would mean that retailers with a 60pc share of a local market would be blocked from extending stores or opening new ones.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, executive director of corporate and legal affairs at Tesco, said that some 2,500 jobs per year will be blocked if the test is implemented. Over a decade, this would be almost equivalent to the entire workforce of Woolworths before its high street stores collapsed in November 2008. "The competition test would put jobs on the line and diminish local democracy. If the test had existed in the past, the Tesco regeneration partnership stores in Haydock and Port Glasgow would have been blocked," said Ms Neville-Rolfe.

"Two and a half thousand retail jobs a year would be lost if the test goes ahead, some of them in Britain's poorest communities."

The Competition Commission published its final report into supermarkets in April 2008. The antitrust watchdog found that the UK groceries market was broadly competitive but proposed a raft of remedies, including an extended supplier code of practice, an industry ombudsman, remedies affecting restrictive covenants and the introduction of the Competition Test.

While retailers such as Asda and J Sainsbury support the Competition Test, Tesco opposed it and appealed to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). The CAT upheld the appeal last year, saying that the Commission had failed to address its proportionality and effectiveness. However, last October the Commission recommended that a tweaked version of the test be implemented.

Fruits, veggies passed on - The East Oregonian

Fruits, veggies passed on - The East Oregonian
Despite a health-conscious craze, vegetable consumption is down

By DEAN BRICKEY
The East Oregonian

SALEM - Americans are eating less beef and pork, but more poultry.

They like their cheese, but drink less milk. Yogurt consumption is up, ice cream consumption is down.

And, perhaps surprisingly, fruit and vegetable consumption per capita has dipped despite what generally seems to be healthier eating habits.

These conclusions are based on the latest look at American consumption of food commodities by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service from 1998-2007.

"We are seeing some shifts in consumers' diets," said Brent Searle, analyst with the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "Some of those shifts are related to health concerns, some are simply price related as commodities are influenced by a variety of factors resulting in retailers charging more or less."

The U.S. dairy industry has been on an economic roller coaster in recent years with some wild swings in production, price, and consumption. In general, milk as a beverage has trended downward in consumption while at least some of the lower fat dairy products have shot upward.

The data show that fluid milk consumption has dropped 10.2 percent to 178.2 pounds per capita. No other commodity in the report has seen a bigger decrease over the past decade.

But a closer look at the type of milk being consumed indicates Americans are trying to reduce the fat in their diet. Whole milk is down 20.9 percent to 55 pounds per person. Lower fat milk actually has less than increased four-tenths of 1 percent during the same period to 96 pounds per capita.

A health-conscious America is more often walking past the ice cream aisle in the grocery store on its way to the yogurt section. Ice cream consumption is down 14 percent to 14 pounds per person while yogurt consumption has nearly doubled to 11.5 pounds.

Cheese consumption also is rising, up 17.6 percent to 32.7 pounds per person. Cheese has gained tremendous popularity growth in such entrees as pizza and other quick-serve products.

Egg consumption has also increased 4.2 percent from to 32.1 pounds in 2007.

One of the head-scratchers in the data involves consumption of fruits and vegetables.

"When you aggregate all fruit and vegetable consumption compared to a decade ago, it is down," said Searle. "Conventional wisdom dictates the opposite direction, given our trend towards health consciousness."

The category of all fruits and vegetables shows consumption down 4 percent to 680 pounds per person. A breakdown of those numbers indicates less consumption of fruit is responsible for the overall category drop.

Consumption of all forms of fruit is down 9.4 percent to 263 pounds per capita. Even fresh fruit is down 2.2 percent to 126.2 pounds per person.

"Part of the explanation may be that the price of some fresh fruit increased in 2007 because the devalued U.S. dollar made imports more expensive," said Searle. "We import a lot of fruit, primarily bananas, which is the number one fruit consumed in the U.S. banana prices were up substantially at that time."

Whether it is fresh, canned, or dried, fruit consumption is down over the 10-year period.

"That's all fruit," said Ron Brown of Earl Brown & Sons in Milton-Freewater, "but apples are up, and that's all I'm concerned about."

Brown said some of the decline in fruit consumption could relate to consumers' concerns about eating imported fruit.

Fresh vegetable consumption, on the other hand, is up 4.8 percent to 202.2 pounds per person even though canned and frozen vegetable consumption has decreased. The buy-local campaign and farmers' markets have influenced fresh vegetable consumption, but so has the industry's convenient packaging.

"Baby carrots, for example, have been a big hit with consumers and so has pre-packaged salads," said Searle. "Other industry segments can learn from the success of the fresh vegetable industry, which has listened to consumers about the products they want. That has brought more dollars to that industry segment."

Hermiston Foods processes tons of carrots each year, turning many of them into "baby" carrots, which arrive as big carrots, but are sliced into shorter segments before the strait edges are rounded.

General Manager Roy Stephen said despite increases in consumption, Hermiston Foods' production has remains stable.

"Ours has been fairly consistent over the years," he said. "It's the biggest crop that we produce here."

The food trends are based on U.S. per capita consumption - how many pounds of a certain commodity the average American eats in a year. Those trends may differ slightly state-by-state, but they do reflect food choices Americans, in general, are making.

The data show red meat consumption is down 3.9 percent to 110.6 pounds per person. Beef consumption has dropped 3.5 percent to 62.2 pounds. Consumption of pork, veal, and lamb also has decreased.

Red meat's loss apparently is poultry's gain. During the same period, chicken consumption has increased 18.8 percent to 59.9 pounds per person. Turkey consumption remained fairly stable, but the overall category of poultry has done well.

"Poultry consumption is up and I think that is related to packaging, convenience, relative ease of preparation, and certainly price competitiveness when compared to red meat," said Searle.

Fish and shellfish have seen some gains in U.S. consumption, up 12.4 percent to 16.3 pounds per capita.

The data do not include 2008 and 2009 - two economically volatile years that have produced some large fluctuations in commodity prices and production. However, the 10-year snapshot reveals some interesting trends, which experts say can be instructive to all agricultural producers and processors, including those in Oregon.

"These types of long-term trends are important to look at because they give agriculture some indication of where consumers are spending their dollars," Searle said.